The Dilemma of Book Length and How to Teach Reading in Schools

I have read two articles recently that shed some light on a nuanced issue.  At hand is the apparent reluctance that children have in reading books and what to do about it.

I first found this interesting article with which I wholeheartedly agree.

Why Kids Aren't Falling in Love with Reading

The article is paywalled, so you might have trouble reading it.  I will summarize and then provide some short quotes.  The author points out that schools tend to have students read short excerpts of books, such as a few paragraphs, and then analyze them.  This takes away all the fun in reading.  I remember having to do that myself, and I never enjoyed that reading.

Even when I read full-length books for school, I never enjoyed them much.  There's something about being forced to read a preselected book that takes away the fun.  I remember reading To Kill a Mockingbird in school.  I remember it as the best book I read for school, but I won't ever read it again. 

I read A Tale of Two Cities in school and did not like it very much.  I remember that particular senior English class was unruly, so that may have helped ruin the experience.  Additionally, that teacher quizzed us on each chapter and asked us really obscure questions, like what color of dress a character wore.  I felt that her quizzes were unfair and designed to fail us.  

I did later read some Dickens novels on my own for myself (David Copperfield, Our Mutual Friend) and enjoyed them greatly. 

I also recall reading Huckleberry Finn in school as well.  I did not enjoy it.  My one memory about the book, aside from not liking it, was that we read it aloud including the n-word.  This occurred in 1988 or 1989.  Those were different times, but still, that I remember this clearly tells you what I was a bit uncomfortable.  Perhaps that was the point.

Here are some short excerpts from the above linked article.

"But what parents today are picking up on is that a shrinking number of kids are reading widely and voraciously for fun." 

"I recently spoke with educators and librarians about this trend, and they gave many explanations, but one of the most compelling—and depressing—is rooted in how our education system teaches kids to relate to books."

"What I remember most about reading in childhood was falling in love with characters and stories... In New York, where I was in public elementary school in the early ’80s, we did have state assessments that tested reading level and comprehension, but the focus was on reading as many books as possible and engaging emotionally with them as a way to develop the requisite skills.  Now the focus on reading analytically seems to be squashing that organic enjoyment.  Critical reading is an important skill, especially for a generation bombarded with information, much of it unreliable or deceptive.  But this hyperfocus on analysis comes at a steep price:  The love of books and storytelling is being lost."

"This disregard for story starts as early as elementary school. Take this requirement from the third-grade English-language-arts Common Core standard, used widely across the U.S.:  'Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language.' "

"But here's how one educator experienced in writing Common Core–aligned curricula proposes this be taught:  First, teachers introduce the concepts of nonliteral and figurative language.  Then, kids read a single paragraph from Amelia Bedelia and answer written questions."

"The process of meeting a character and following them through a series of conflicts is the fun part of reading.  Jumping into a paragraph in the middle of a book is about as appealing for most kids as cleaning their room."

The author points out that a better approach is simply to have students read Amelia Bedelia and engage with the characters.  By laughing at the antics of Amelia Bedelia, the students will learn to love reading.  The teacher can then discuss aspects of the story with students.

I recall that I never enjoyed reading excerpts in school.  My love of reading came from reading Nancy Drew books at home during my own free time.  Give me The Secret of the Old Clock anytime over some dumb out-of-context passage.

That said, reading short passages is important since students need to be exposed to a variety of topics and writing styles.  However, those students who learn to love books will quite naturally end up reading a wide variety of content.

Here's more from the article.

"A friend recently told me that her child's middle-school teacher had introduced To Kill a Mockingbird to the class, explaining that they would read it over a number of months—and might not have time to finish it.  "How can they not get to the end of To Kill a Mockingbird?" she wondered.  I'm right there with her.  You can't teach kids to love reading if you don't even prioritize making it to a book's end."

"Longer books, for example, are considered less 'fun'; in addition, some librarians, teachers, and parents are noticing a decline in kids' reading stamina after the disruption of the pandemic.  You can see these factors at play in a recent call for shorter books.  But one has to wonder whether this is also the not-entirely-unsurprising outcome of having kids interact with literature in paragraph-size bites."

"We need to meet kids where they are; for the time being, I am writing stories that are shorter and less complex." 

The above passages segue nicely into the second article.

It's Not Me, It's You:  An Argument for Shorter Middle Grade Books

This person reviews books, yet she is having trouble getting through them.

"Usually, I love all the books.  And I'm a fast reader. But when I look at the books on my shelves and my apps, I notice that in the past few months, I've finished 17, abandoned 19, and have yet to read five.

This gives me pause. Even more interesting is the fact that most of the recent books I've abandoned are around 350–400 pages."

She explains further.

"I'm saying that if I, an avid reader who literally reads books for my job, am struggling to get through these really long, newly published middle grade books, is it possible that some kids aren't loving these long books, either?

The answer is yes: many kids won't even pick up a long book, as confirmed by all the responses on Twitter.  When looking at a book with a lot of pages, children might be intimidated, they might prefer quicker stories, they might be struggling readers, and/or they might have attention issues, among other factors."

The author also points out that the quality of writing is also a factor.  That's the biggest factor for me.  These days, a book must grab me within the first few pages, or I won't read it.  I don't have the attention span or stamina to slog through a book that doesn't highly captivate me.

I occasionally get requests to read and review books.  In just the last week, someone offered to send me a book to review.  I just can't.  I have books that I personally want to read, yet I can hardly force myself to read them.  Reading the Keeper of the Lost Cities series was a such a wonderful experience for me, because I was fully engaged and am still thinking about the books even though I'm done reading them.  Now, I once again can't seem to force myself to read much of anything.  It's really sad.

Most people don't have a good attention span these days.  The Internet and social media have caused this.  We need information presented to us in smaller chunks.  When I write posts for this blog, I cut most long paragraphs in half to make it easier for readers.  I don't worry about whether the paragraph break makes sense; it needs to be shorter to make it easier to read.  Logic is less important than ease of reading.

What's great about series books is that we get to read multiple stories in smaller chunks.  Each volume serves as a good stopping point.  It's great reading one story and later being able to read another one.